As we reported yesterday, Seattle’s neighborhood greenways are attracting a whole lot of people on bikes. One route in Ballard even led to an 805 percent increase in people biking on the street in just the first year of operation.

And the city is just getting started.

After a couple years trying to figure out how to put the pieces together to build neighborhood greenways effectively, Seattle has finally hit its stride. The city is on track to build 5.4 miles of neighborhood greenways by the end of this year (like this one in Olympic Hills), but they have many more miles in the planning and outreach pipeline.

SDOT released their updated workplan this week, which gives a rough look ahead at which routes will be built and planned next. And while West Seattle and the north end get some love, the majority of routes are focused in central Seattle and Rainier Valley.

South Seattle has long been left out of safe streets improvements seen in many other parts of the city, so it’s no surprise that the area is home to some of the most dangerous streets in Seattle. For people on bikes, there are very few direct and comfortable routes, especially compared to neighborhoods north of the Ship Canal. Since Rainier Valley has a more diverse and lower income population, the city’s failure to make the streets safe and connect bike routes raises serious questions of equality and social justice.

Just over one year ago, Trevon Crease-Holden was walking his little brother across the street when someone driving struck him and then fled the scene. The person responsible has not been caught. Crease-Holden, who should be getting ready for his sophomore year of high school is instead fighting slowly to recover from a serious brain injury. KOMO caught up with him and his family to see how he’s doing one year later: (more…)